Chicken Poop

'Gardening is an instrument of grace' - May Sarton

I don't know about you, but this whole Mother's Day thing is exhausting. To show my love and appreciation to my mom this year, I decided to give her something quite rare (from me, at least): manual labor.

For an entire 6 hours, yesterday, we 'gardened' under the scorching Oregon sun. We raked. We planted. We pulled weeds. We shoveled until our backs ached and our faces glistened. I even shoveled and hauled a rather large bucket of chicken poop for her compost pile.

Because nothing says love like a pile of steaming manure.

We've still got some work to do on her vegetable garden, but check out our progress over the weekend:

Before: Mom says this is embarrassing. I say 'And this is after I removed the rusty lawnmower.'

After: Look, Mom, no more white trash!!!

Before: Please don't judge us.

After: Yep. Greatest Daughter Ever!

To all those women doing the hardest job on the planet, a belated Happy Mother's Day!

{Images via Elizabeth Farrar for Bella Vita}